The Northern Rail models at the heart of Legoland’s popular attraction have been binned in a bold move to back millions of rail commuters.

Legoland bosses announced the news after theatrically stripping the Northern Rail train from the centre of its Manchester-based "Mini land".

Angry commuters on the platform

The train at the centre of ‘Mini Land’ at the Stretford site has been taken down and the railway podium has been removed from the miniature Lego-built city of Manchester.

This is in acknowledgement of the millions of commuters affected by the current Northern Rail debacle, and the knock-on effect also hitting Northern businesses hard, especially those that depend on customers commuting to Manchester.

Nearly a third of the attraction’s customer base live in the most affected areas of Wigan, Stockport, Warrington, Liverpool, Stoke-on-Trent and Bolton, with footfall decreasing by half from some of those areas in the last eight weeks.

The decision to remove the blue and purple brick-built train carriages from Mini Land, was made on over-hearing visitors’ comments about the Northern Rail train on the Lego-built railway tracks that forms part of the feature.

Legoland bins the Northern Rail train

“The shift in visitor patterns marries with the Northern Rail change to timetables and surge of cancellations and delays.” said Jenn McDonough, general manager of the Manchester cluster for Merlin Entertainments.

“As a Northern business, we depend on visitors from neighbouring areas, and I know we’re not alone. Northern Rail’s ongoing problems are such that it’s impacting on business.”

“The suggestion from staff that the Northern train should be removed from the attraction, we feel, reflects events from the region. Mini Land is a dedication, in Lego form, of what’s great about Manchester, and the North West, today.”

Mini Land, the Lego-built miniature city of Manchester contains over 15,583 bricks, each laid by hand and glued into place by Alex Bidolak Master Model Builder and included within the general admissions price.